Zealot
The Zealot is a baser, known for his entirely one-directional modus operandi. The zealot, like the marine, is a pure-blooded baser type that has no other buildings or units which allow him to deviate from his predetermine path of the baser. That being said, the zealot is easily the second most powerful baser in the game, second only to the zergling. 'Buildings' 'Pylon' Hotkey: E Wood: 100 (Upgrade 200) Gold: 0 (Upgrade 0) Seconds: 3 (Upgrade 5) HP: 300 (Upgrade 400) Shields: 0 (Upgrade 100) + 150 from upgrade Armor: 5 (Upgrade 15) S. Armor: 0(Upgrade 15) Size: 2x2 The pylon is the zealot's wall, unique in that like the sentry it has shields attached to it. Shields can be upgraded by reaching Enchanced Defences at a forge, available after attaining a cybernetics core. 'Nexus' Hotkey: Q Wood: 10 Gold: 0 Seconds: 3 HP: 250 Armor: 5 Size: 2x2 Researches Available: Enchanced Lumber Harvesting The nexus is the resource collection and worker production building for the zealot. The zealot, like the reaper, is capable of upgrading the general speed at which workers gather resources, and this upgrade is invaluable to the zealot, especially because the zealot requires a relatively high amount of lumber to produce a functional base. Also of note is that the nexus has 250 life compared to the marine's 200 life command center, making it an effective cheap wall for juke points. 'Assimilator' Hotkey: S Wood: 20 Gold: 0 Seconds: 3 Attack: 10 (20 to structures) AS: 1.25 Range: 5 HP: 250 Armor: 5 Supply Created: 25 Size: 3x3 This is the zealot supply building. As a trade off for it's heightened nexus hit point count, the assimilator loses 50 max life making it one of the more fragile supplies in the game. 'Forge' Hotkey: F Wood: 150 Gold: 0 Seconds: 10 HP: 250 Armor: 5 Researches Available: Enchanced Defences Harvester Survival Training Harvester Haste Training Night Vision Units Trained: Stalker Size: 3x3 The forge, the first zealot research building available, contains many upgrades for zealot bases. Unlike other basers, the zealot is unusual in that it can also upgrade its worker's unit speeds in tandem with maximum hit points, making probes incredibly effective at scouting areas out. 'Photon Cannon' Hotkey: C Wood: 50 (Upgrade 100) (Upgrade 250) (Upgrade 500) Gold: 0 (Upgrade 0) (Upgrade 0) (Upgrade 0) Seconds: 3 (Upgrade 3) (Upgrade 3) (Upgrade 3) HP: 100 (Upgrade 100) (Upgrade 100) (Upgrade 100) Armor: 5 (Upgrade 5) (Upgrade 5) (Upgrade 5) Shields: 150 (Upgrade 300) (Upgrade 400) (Upgrade 450) S. Armor: 5 (Upgrade 5) (Upgrade 5) (Upgrade 5) Damage: 20 (Upgrade 30) (Upgrade 40) (Upgrade 50) AS: 1.75 (Upgrade 1.75) (Upgrade 1.75) (Upgrade 1.75) Range: 6 (Upgrade 7) (Upgrade 8) (Upgrade 9) Supply: 1 (Upgrade 1) (Upgrade 1) (Upgrade 1) Size: 2x2 The photon cannon is renowned for it's ability to improve and it's resilience. The photon cannon, like the reaper, has 3 upgrades from it's base. It goes from the normal photon cannon to advanced, prismatic, and transcendental photon cannons. They are also close to being the most expensive towers in the game, with the actual most expensive being reaper tanks. Zealot cannons also have an unusual amount of shields, which regenerate when not being attacked. This, coupled with focus firing on infested terran eggs, makes zealot bases nearly impervious to infested terran mass when played correctly. 'Cybernetics Core' Hotkey: Y Wood: 500 Gold: 45 Seconds: 10 HP: 150 Armor: 5 Shields: 150 S. Armor: 5 Size: 3x3 The cybernetics core is the first available gold building to the zealot, and unlocks transcendental photon cannons as well as advanced probe upgrades. This building is an absolute neccesity against higher leveled titans because non-upgraded zealot bases can be slaughtered by titans easily. 'Advanced Research Center' Hotkey: R Wood: 1250 Gold: 45 Seconds: 10 HP: 150 Armor: 10 Shields: 150 S.Armor: 10 Researches Available: Enchanced Photon Cannon Damage Enchanced Photon Cannon Range Size: 3x3 The advanced research center is an absolute neccesity for any zealot. This is due to the fact that transcendental photon cannons are ludicrously expensive, especially when trying for an entire base of them. It is best to first get the enchanced tower upgrades first because they are cheap, and effect photon cannons on a global scale. 'Monolith' Hotkey: M Wood: 3000 Gold: 100 Seconds: 5 HP: 200 Armor: 5 Shields: 300 S.Armor: 5 Attack: 10 AS: 0.1 Range: 7 Supply: 6 SPECIAL ABILITY: Attacks ignore armor Known for being the only gold building that the zealot has access to, the Monolith has the unique ability to ignore armor and attack the titan directly. This gold building is better used when put into item form, because it allows the stalker to ignore armor, and increases it's attack speed by 25% for each monolith in it's inventory. Note that monolith items stack in a stalker's inventory, with a filled inventory of monoliths giving absurd attack speeds to the stalker. 'Units' 'Probe' The probe is known in the game for being the fastest worker available to builders. After attaining the last level of harvester movement speed, the probe can move at 4.25, making it officially faster than all titans except a raging Archon or Overdriving A.R.E.S.. This makes the probe an excellent scouting unit, because of the fact that it does not feed gold and feeds only a minimal amount of experience. The probe also has self-regenerating shields, making it especially resilient in long-term scouting against nuke-bearing titans. 'Upgrades' 'Enchanced Defences' Hotkey: E Wood: 1000 Gold: 0 Seconds: 60 Requirements: Cybernetics Core Effect: Increases the shields of all pylons owned by the player. Researching Structure: Forge Definately an upgrade to look at, the Enchanced Defences upgrade increases the hit points of all pylons by 150. That means an upgraded pylon whill have an astounding 450 hit points, in comparison to it's unupgraded 300 hit point form. 'Enchanced Lumber Harvesting' Hotkey: L Wood: 500 (Upgrade 500) (Upgrade 500) (Upgrade 500) (Upgrade 500) Gold: 0 (Upgrade 0) (Upgrade 0) (Upgrade 0) (Upgrade 0) Seconds: 90 (Upgrade 90) (Upgrade 90) (Upgrade 90) (Upgrade 90) Requirements: Nothing (Upgrade Forge) (Upgrade Cybernetics Core) (Upgrade Advanced research center) Effect: Increases lumber acquisition rate of Probes. Researching Structure: Nexus Increases the rate at which probes acquire lumber. Taking into consideration the abnormally large amount of lumber required for a succesful zealot base, this upgrade should be the second thing to research after setting up a complete wood base. 'Harvester Survival Training' Hotkey: U Wood: 1500 (Upgrade: 1500) (Upgrade: 1500) Gold: 0 (Upgrade: 0) (Upgrade: 0) Seconds: 120 (Upgrade: 120) (Upgrade: 120) Requirements: Nothing (Upgrade: Cybernetics Core) (Upgrade: Adv Research) Effect: Increases the shields of all probes by 50/100/150 Researching Structure: Forge This upgrade permanently increases the shields of all probes by 50/100/150. This upgrade is especially useful if the zealot plans on using probes to scout the locations of minions or the titan. Fully upgrading this means that probes can survive all of the titan nukes in the game. 'Harvester Haste Training' Hotkey: H Wood: 250 (Upgrade: 750) Gold: 0 (Upgrade: 0) Seconds: 45 (Upgrade: 45) Requirements: Cybernetics Core (Upgrade: Adv Research Center) Effect: Increases the movement speed of all probes by 0.5/1.5 Researching Structure: Forge This upgrade permanently increases the shields of all probes by 50/100/150. This upgrade is especially useful if the zealot plans on using probes to scout the locations of minions or the titan. Fully upgrading this means that probes can survive all of the titan nukes in the game. 'Enhanced Photon Cannon Damage' Hotkey: D Wood: 2000 Gold: 0 Seconds: 30 Requirements: Nothing Effect: All photon cannons gain 10 damage. Researching Structure: Advanced Research Center This upgrade increases the damage of all photon cannons by 10. This upgrade is invaluable to a budding zealot base, because transcendental photon cannons cost unreasonable amounts of lumber to procure. Researching enchanced photon cannons first essentially makes all prismatic photon cannon's damage equal to a transcendental. 'Enhanced Photon Cannon Range' Hotkey: R Wood: 2000 Gold: 0 Seconds: 30 Requirements: Nothing Effect: All photon cannons gain 1 range. Researching Structure: Advanced Research Center The enchanced range that this upgrade allows can make up for the lack of transcendentals in a middle-game base. This and the damage upgrade from the advanced research center can make prismatic cannons the same strength as transcendental cannons, while only paying a minimal amount of lumber to do so. 'Night Vision' Hotkey: ? Wood: 2000 Gold: 15 Seconds: 30 Requirements: Cybernetics Core Effect: Unlocks the night vision ability for stalkers. Researching Structure: Forge This upgrade unlocks night vision for stalkers, which allows them to spot invisible units. Because stalkers have a reasonable vision range, this is definately an upgrade to look at after getting a cybernetics core and advanced research center. Strategies Masterful's Zealot Guide Zealots are one of the three main builders in Island Defense. They can put up a strong base and their base strength carries on into the late game. This is because of the Zealots extra tower upgrade over the other 2 main builders. The Zealot also has a Titan Hunter (TH): The Stalker. The Stalker is very important for killing titan, and can be the reason several titans die. Non-Golding Method Tier 1 Zealot bases are very weak - so don't build them. What you want to do is find a good spot to set up and collect around 7,000~ lumber, 2 lumber upgrades and your stalker. Get your Stalker out as soon as you can - once it is out, start levelling it by running around the gold with it and attacking titans. The first 2 upgrades you want with your stalker are Blink and Stats. Next you want to get mana burn to level 3. You don't really need Blink level 3, but you can get it if you want. Once you have your 7,000~ wood, start setting a base up. Make sure the base has a 3x3 corridor into it. There are 3 in particular: *The base on the right. *The base left of the base on the right. Start building the base, however, leave one of the cannon spots empty (the one that's going to hit the titan first) and blink your Stalker here. Upgrade the cannons as soon as possible. Now - here's the fun part. You DON'T finish building all your walls. You have only 2 or 3 walls past where the stalker is (make sure your walls are fully upgraded). This way, the titan can practically walk up to your base and only have to kill 3-6 upgraded walls to get in. The titan probably won't even notice they're upgraded and will walk up to attack them. When the titan takes the bait and goes into the lane, blink your stalker in BEHIND the titan and hold position in the middle of the lane, trapping it in. If you upgraded mana burn, chances are the titan will run out of energy and be unable to use a teleport crystal, if it's the main titan, they should recall. The titan, at this point, has 2 choice: teleport or die. If they don't teleport, watch and lulz at the titan squirming until it dies, giving you some sexy free gold and wood. If the titan is an Archon and they cloak, just stand your ground. Put your Stalker on Hold Position and wait it out. If the titan is an infestor, it will burrow and escape until you can get night vision. Tips: *Leave a few more walls if you don't feel too confident. *As the titan levels up you want extra walls. *The bait will almost certainly kills a minion if they attempt to attack. *Beware of Demonicus sneaking Ghouls into your base. *Helps if there is a Changeling w/Corruptor form in your base for the extra damage. *If your stalker is going to die and the trapped titan/minion is low, DO NOT blink away. Better a titan/minion kill than your stalker. Dragoneles' Zealot Guide ' The Zealot is a very powerful baser with many tips and tricks to make it possible to survive even the firecest of titans. Using all of your tools to your advantage will make the titan fear you. ---- Abilities You have 2 abilities as the Zealot, both of which are very useful. The first, and most important is Charge . This is your "Oh shit" button, literally. When used in junction with Walljukes, you will be uncatchable. If you are running from an immortal, wait to use Charge after you are hit by a gravitron beam. You will usually only get to use Charge once in a chase. The other ability you have is Hallucination, with is often very bad at chasing, but can be useful if you have perfect micro. Mostly, you use hallucination after you first spawn. Send the Hallucination to the titan egg and use Charge to get to your lumber base to set up as soon as possible. With your hallucination spying on the titan, yo uwill always know what you're up against. Usually a Dark Templar will do this job, but not always, so it's better to get this information yourself. '''Wood Bases ' For this guide, I'm going to assume you randomed your Zealot, and have 100 wood to spend. The first thing you do, is build 4 nexii and 3 assimilators. This will provide you with enough macro to create a full supply of workers. While you are creating the probes, harvest enough lumber with your zealot to construct a fourth assimilator. Then send your zealot back to the trees and make more probes. Now when you get 20 wood, go build a 5th assimilator. By now, your probes should be turning in a round of wood, enough to get your 6th assimilator and build enough nexii for every worker to be 1 unit away from the trees. Finish making your 25th probe. Only get a stalker if the titan is camping and you can make a hunter base. At this point, there are two things you can do. You can go gather gold with your zealot, or continue to harvest wood. If you decide to harvest gold, know what the titan is. If he is an infestor or an archon, then remembe to wall off every side of the gold mound. You won't be able to get away if you don't. If the titan is Demonicus, only gold if you know where he is. Once the titan gets a minion, you are pretty much out of time, and should go back to wood basing. This is mostly a player preference. If you are comfortable with your ability to walljuke, gold at your own risk. If you plan on golding, I recommend you get enough wood to build a forge, so you can research both of your lumber upgrades without returning to your base to build your forge. Remember to research both as soon as possible.Basing Choosing when to base is the first step. Once you get about 10,000 lumber, you have enough to get almost a full Prismatic base. If there are 2 or more minions by the time you reach 10,000, it is time for you to base. If someone else has a base up already and the titan is focusing on it, you can stretch for 12,000, but you'll really need several bases to keep all the supports alive and prevent the titan from gaining more minions. If you golded successfully at the beginning of the game, and you have over 35g, you have enough to build a Cybernetics Core and get a full Transcedential base fairly early on, almost guaranteeing that the titan will lose. If this is the case, hold off on basing until you have 25,000-30,000 lumber. It takes a lot of money to build a transcedential base, and you will get that money a lot faster by maintaining a wood base. If another player has a base up and you want to get a transcedential base, ask them if you can put your Cybernetics Core in their base. If they allow you to, then do so, and research tier three lumber harvesting. This will improve your gathering rate immensely. If you don't have enough gold for that Cybernetics, go ahead and base at around 14,000 lumber. What I usually do is based on the other players. If there are several bases active, then I just harvest lumber until my wood base is found. If there are 2 or 3 minions, I recommend you put your zealot itself in one of the other bases, that way you can't get trapped and killed while fleeing your wood base. If you are in sever need of a base, and all your supports are doing their best just not to die, then base as soon as possible, at 10,000 lumber. If all the supports are crammed in your base, you can survive with Advanced Photon cannons long enough to upgrade them all after setting up a base. After you get to a place to set up a base, start by building your assimilators and your forge. They are the most important part of making a new base. Without supply, the titan may find you while you only have half of a base up, and that will create a lot of feed. Once you do that, begin training your Stalker immediately. The sooner you get it out to start levellling, the better.Place your walls first, that way you can still escape if you are found too soon. Then place all of your cannons around the edges of the cliffs like all bases, and remember to leave a 2x2 space for your stalker to sit. I find that it's a good idea to leave 2 2x2 spaces for my Stalker, that way Predators and the other Stalker can use it as a getaway. If nobody else is going to use it, it can still come in handy, as you can blink your Stalker to the other 2x2 space when the titan tries to nuke it to death. As soon as your cannons are finished building, select them all and upgrade them. Level 1 cannons are feed, but upgraded cannons are a defense. Once your stalker is finished, place one point in Blink and one in the Stat boost, and place it on the preserved 2x2 space. As it levels, add points to stat bonus to deal more damage and make your stalker harder to kill. Tips & Tricks Basing as a Zealot can be very effective with the right strategies. Basing properly is one thing, but basing well requires using all of your resources to your advantage. Tips: *When battling against Demonicus, you can anti-ghoul as a Zealot without any supports. Simply use your builder to hold position on one side of your walls, and your hallucination to hold position on the other side of your walls. Note that this does not work on bases with a backdoor. *If there is a Sentry in the game, ask them early on if they can wall for you. This will save you 2k wood in the way of basing, and you can get a base up much faster. *Early game hallucination is very underused. While working on your wood base, send hallucinations to the gold mound to distract the titan and verify it's position. This is most effective when the titan does not yet have a scan. *If you have baneling or changeling supports, leave a path open for them to have access to the wings of the base to deal damage and spawn their armies. *This applies for all basers. Do not build a full row of walls, make the titan walk deep into the lane. That way they get exposed to bare cannons first, and it takes longer for them to run away. *Often times a titan will sit outside your base after making a close escape, waiting to regenerate enough energy for a heal. Use your hallucination to lure them back into your base. The AI will chase you automatically. If they are on hold position, this won't work, but watch for them to use their heal, because it will break hold position, giving you another chance to lure them in. *If the titan has low damage, and it takes them 3 shots to kill your builder, you can use Charge to dash behind them during a siege and place a wall. This will almost guarantee their death. *If you are grouped with an army support builder, such as a baneling, spectre, or reaper, have them wait near the gold mound. Then when the titan makes a close escape from a siege and uses recall, they will be greeted by an army ready to finish off the game. '''Special Thanks Masterful Made a strategy guide for the zealot page. 'Dragoneles' Made a strategy guide for the zealot page. Category:Builder